This study is designed: 1.) to evaluate and compare nurses' knowledge of the epidemiology, pathogenesis, occupational risks, and appropriate prevention strategies for managing patients infected with bloodborne pathogens in the health care setting in four university hospitals in Japan and at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health in the US; 2.) to compare self-reported levels of compliance with existing infection control recommendations designed to limit risk for exposure to bloodborne pathogens in five insti-tutions; 3.) to compare self-reported frequencies of cutaneous exposures to blood at the five hospitals in the study; and 4.) to evaluate the effect of educational intervention on nurses' perceived compliance with recommendations and on the frequency of self-reported exposures to blood.This project is just beginning. The protocol and consent documents have been translated into Japanese. Japanese coinvestigators have been identified. The questionnaire has been developed in collaboration with the coinvestigators and with staff from their institutions. Pilot testing is in progress. We anticipate that the first survey will be completed and analyzed in 1999.